The Druds was a short-lived 1963 avant-garde noise music band founded by Andy Warhol,[1] that featured prominent members of the New York proto-conceptual art and minimal art community. The band's noise rock sound has been compared to that of Henry Flynt and/or The Primitives, the band that featured the first collaboration of Lou Reed and John Cale, who would soon form The Velvet Underground.[2]
Minimalist sculptor Walter De Maria played drums, painter Larry Poons played guitar, and minimal composer La Monte Young played the saxophone (but finding it ridiculous, quit after the second rehearsal);[3] artist and poet Patty Mucha (then Patty Oldenburg, as she was married to sculptor Claes Oldenburg) was the lead singer.[4] Jasper Johns wrote neodada lyrics as did Warhol who also occasionally sang.[5] Warhol wrote the songs The Alphabet Song, Movie Stars, Hollywood and Coca-Cola.[6][7][4] Happening artist Gloria Graves[8] and Lucas Samaras also sang with the group.[9]
